Asako Nakiro
Asako Nakiro was an Inquisitor of the Phoenix Clan who lived near Morikage Toshi. Bells of the Dead, p. 8 He became a Maho-tsukai. Bells of the Dead, p. 29 Sick In 1088 Nakiro embarked upon a quest to study the Shimushigaki, a powerful gaki which was banished two centuries ago in the place which was currently known as the Bells of the Dead. He contracted a terrible illness and only survived through the intervention of Yasuki Taka. Nakiro retired to the lands of the Falcon to study gaki phenomenon. Unveiling the Truth Nakiro had been attacked by the Shimushigaki and almost killed. Instead the gaki had left a piece of itself in the centre of his soul which allowed it to control Nakiro almost completely. Bells of the Dead, p. 39 Taka slipped him through the Crab guards, and carried him to Friendly Traveler Village, were the monk Moruko tended him, but Nakiro did not heal. What shambled out of the Temple of Jurojin was no longer human. Controlled by the Gaki Nakiro once tried to fight the control of the gaki, but his willpower to fight such a spirit was destroyed over many years. Nakiro was incredibly old and ravaged by Taint, with long and frayed hair. His skin was pulled tightly over his features, with wide eyes. His palms bore the eye tattoos of an Inquisitor, but the eyes were bloodshot with tears of blood. He was effectively dead. Dajan's Kolat Nakiro had been blackmailed by Taka, who extorted him for years, becoming an old, bitter, and penniless man. In 1102, Nakiro met a man called Daidoji Dajan, member of the kolat conspiracy. The gaki drove Nakiro to goad the ambitious Dajan, so they could gain power enough to bring the Shimushi into the mortal world. Five years later they discovered a means by which the Oni's Eye could be circumvented. Dajan broke away from the Kolat and they vanished. together they formed a splinter sect of the Kolat referred to as Dajan's Kolat. Bells of the Dead, pp. 8, 38-39 They used as stronghold a fortress near the shrine which had been created by the gaki, an extension of itself. Bells of the Dead, pp. 30-31 True Kolat Retaliation In 1125 Toritaka Bonugi, one of the samurai who had set testimony against the Hare Clan, leading in his banishment, was found murdered by the true Kolat. Another of the witnesses, Daidoji Unoko, requested protection to her uncle Dajan, but she refused to bind her to an oni. Nakiro was sent to Kosaten Shiro by Dajan to silence her, but the shugenja convinced Unoko to feign insanity for her own protection. Bells of the Dead, p. 13 Banished Nakiro died along with Dajan during an attempt to summon the Shimushigaki with a ritual they had devised, the Life's Blood of a Hero. Usagi Ozaki, the outlaw heir of the disbanded Hare Clan, appeared. Dajan expected Ozaki would be the hero to complete the ritual, but the Hare had come alongside a group of samurai investigating the conspiracy against the Hare unleashed by the Dajan's Kolat. Dajan died in the fight, and as a kolat was a hero for the mortal men, fighting the tyranny of the Gods, the ritual was completed. Shimushigaki occupied Nakiro's body completely, the soul of the shugenja banished. The samurai managed to put the gaki back to sleep. Bells of the Dead, pp. 34-36 See also * Asako Nakiro/Meta Category:Shadowlands Personalities Category:Phoenix Clan Members